You know how in movies there'll be some guy lost in the desert, hopelessly dying
of thirst? And then he sees the mirage of an oasis in the distance. He runs to
it until the vision resolves into a reality, and he has to make himself believe
that he really IS drinking fresh water and eating luscious wild dates.

That was who we were as Star Wars fans three years ago: that guy, enduring
fifteen years of thirst for a new Star Wars flick. We madly followed every mirage
that flickered on the horizon until we got to the trees and had to kick ourselves
into realizing that, yes, this was a whole 'nother Star Wars movie.

As nifty a thrill as The Phantom Menace was, those heady days of '97
to early '99 were even more special, I think. Back then Kenneth Branaugh was
flying the Millennium Falcon with Jedi Master Charlton Heston in the Clone Wars
against the Mandalorians and an army of IG-88s. The first trailer started with
a wooden box on a child's bed: Alec Guinness's voice intoning "you know who
he became, now find out who he was" before we saw Vader's lightsaber in the
box. Plo Koon was a cyborg Jedi. We laughed when we heard the name "Darth Maul".
Laughed even harder at "Darth Sidious". And laughed, then groaned, at the first
mention of "midi-chlorians".

Most of the pre-Episode I fun was looking at the classic trilogy and speculating
on what brought the story to the beginning of A New Hope. How would we
see the Empire come about? How would Anakin fall from grace? What was the Old
Republic like? Numerous theories and scenarios were put forth. We foresaw anything
and everything happening in the prequels: Timothy Leary going through Hunter
S. Thompson's medicine cabinet couldn't have hallucinated like we did.

We sobered a bit after Episode I, but with fourteen months left until E2 we're
back on the wagon again. Empty bottles are starting to fill the shelf as we
imbibe on every new bit of prequel lore … including a fresh look at real life.
When George Lucas was crafting the Star Wars saga, he intertwined it with elements
from our world: cultural references, languages, religions, and history. Lots
of history. Take f'rinstance the space battles: Lucas studied countless hours
of World War II dogfight footage from the Pacific theater. As a result the battle
in Return Of The Jedi follows WWII logic: small fighters take on each
other while softening up the capital ships for the larger vessels to make the
bigger kills.

Three years ago I wrote a speculation (which may or may not be accurate) based
on post-World War I history: the Clone Wars are going to be a massive setup.
They won't be intended to be "winnable", but only to bring the galaxy to the
brink of collapse. Palpatine will somehow engineer the Clone Wars (would they
even involve "clones" as we know them to be?) to justify his declaring a state
of emergency in the Republic. Sort of like what Adolph Hitler did on his road
to power in Germany, except what Hitler did by twists of fate, Palpatine is
going to pull off by long-term design… maybe.

I'll be watching Episode II to see if that's what happens. But meanwhile I'm
wondering: Lucas has a lot of appreciation for historical nuance, so what other
parallels might there be between the fictional tyrant and the actual despot?
I started putting together a list comparing everything we know to date about
Palpatine with some facts about Hitler… who knows, maybe by studying Hitler
we can figure out some things in advance about Palpatine, right?

Well, it's pretty amazing how many points of similarity there are between
the two. Consider…

Palpatine is a product of the Sith, an ancient secret society dedicated
to acquiring absolute power and control, and the destruction of the Jedi.
We now know that Adolf Hitler became involved with real-life secret societies
- such as the Golden Dawn and the Thule Society - while a young man in Vienna.
The adherents of these groups believed they were given the legacy of Atlantis,
but their enemies - the "racially inferior" - had to be wiped out before
restoring any past "glory".

There is a "master-apprentice" relationship between Palpatine, as Darth
Sidious, and Darth Maul. Palpatine would certainly have been the apprentice
of an earlier Sith Master. Adolph Hitler dedicated the second part of Mein
Kampf to his own "master": a man named Dietrich Eckart, who reportedly
indoctrinated Hitler into occult mysticism. On his deathbed Eckart is reputed
to have said "I will have influenced Germany more than any other man. Follow
Hitler: he will dance, but I have called his tune."

In The Phantom Menace the Senate of the Republic has become weakened
and unable to function due to internal bickering and partisanship. The Reichstag,
the Weimar Republic's parliament, was likewise being torn apart by petty
politics and corruption, to the point that it failed to exist as a real
governing body.

Hitler's predecessor was Paul von Hindenburg, a respected German war hero
who nevertheless had weak and ineffectual leadership of the Weimar Republic.
Similarly, Palpatine succeeded Finis Valorum, a renowned man who no longer
possessed any real ability to offer leadership.

Hitler came to power in the ruins of World War I, and was seen as a savior
by many German people after the reparations of the Versaille Treaty and
the crash of 1929. Palpatine will in all likelihood become Emperor in the
wake of the Clone Wars… a conflict that will devastate the galaxy and leave
most clamoring for a leader promising peace and security, much as Hitler
did.

If Palpatine is indeed behind the Clone Wars, he will be doing as many
historians believe Hitler did: arrange for the Reichstag fire, blaming its
destruction on the Communists in an effort to justify an increase in his
power. And it'll REALLY be amazing if Palpatine somehow casts blame for
the Clone Wars on the Jedi.

Hitler believed that certain religious artifacts, such as the Lance of
Longinus (the legendary spear which pierced Christ's side at the crucifiction)
and the Holy Grail were symbols of power and authority. Hitler seized the
Lance when Germany annexed Austria, while Nazi scientists searched southern
France for the Grail. In Return Of The Jedi: Special Edition the
statue of Palpatine is holding a globe in his hand… much like the one Boss
Nass holds aloft at the conclusion of The Phantom Menace. Might this
globe be a Star Wars parallel to the Lance?

Hitler instituted gun control in Germany: disarming his opponents… and
the Jews in particular… so there would be little resisting of his plans.
Palpatine ensures less opposition to his own rule by disarming the galaxy
of the one force that could overthrow him: the Jedi.

Hitler started a mass extermination campaign against Europe's population
of Jews, Roma ("gypsies"), people of Slavic origin, and everyone else that
did not fit the twisted "Nazi ideal" of ethnic purity. Palpatine will begin
a holocaust of the Jedi, leaving only two survivors.

Palpatine is known for his superweapons: the two Death Stars, the Executor,
etc. The Nazis under Hitler also experimented with "superweapons", including
a "sound cannon" that would kill opponents with lethal sonic energy (it
didn't work).

At the Battle of Endor, Palpatine used his military reserves to spring
a trap on the Rebels. Similarly, Hitler threw in his reserves in an attempt
to split the Allied forces at the Battle of the Bulge. Both efforts might
have ended in brilliant success for the aggressors but instead resulted
in decisive failure.

Palpatine was destroyed by his right-hand man. Hitler was destroyed by
his own hand (okay that's a stretch but still…)

And there's probably a few other things that could be said of Palpatine and Hitler.
What does all this mean? I guess someone could say that Lucas was making an intricate
commentary on modern history: sort of a "subliminal Santayana". Or maybe he's
just using a real person to more fully "flesh out" a fictional character.

My point with all this is, we're at a unique time to enjoy the saga, and it's
only going to happen one other time ever, when Episode III goes into production.
There's tons of good stuff to ponder before the next movie flickers onto screens
in May '02. Enjoy it to the fullest! Go watch all four movies we have now. Then
go down to your local library and check out a book on real-life history, or
science, or religion and mythology (here's a tip: Hero With A Thousand Faces
is a good idea) that Star Wars has drawn from. Then speculate with your fellow
fans, including on our message boards.
As sobering as the subject matter was, it was a lot of fun to put the Palpatine-Hitler
list together, and I'm hoping that someone out there will come up with an even
bigger list!

And there's one other thing that comes with reading up on the real-life aspects
of the saga: Star Wars as a rich story is good. But enriching yourself as a
person is even better!